1. Overview

The Lua CJSON module provides JSON support for Lua.

Features

  • Fast, standards compliant encoding/parsing routines

  • Full support for JSON with UTF-8, including decoding surrogate pairs

  • Optional run-time support for common exceptions to the JSON specification (infinity, NaN,..)

  • No dependencies on other libraries

Caveats

  • UTF-16 and UTF-32 are not supported

Lua CJSON is covered by the MIT license. Review the file LICENSE for details.

The latest version of this software is available from the Lua CJSON website.

Feel free to email me if you have any patches, suggestions, or comments.

2. Installation

Lua CJSON requires either Lua 5.1, Lua 5.2, or LuaJIT to build.

The build method can be selected from 4 options:

Make

Unix (including Linux, BSD, Mac OSX & Solaris), Windows

CMake

Unix, Windows

RPM

Linux

LuaRocks

Unix, Windows

2.1. Make

The included Makefile has generic settings.

First, review and update the included makefile to suit your platform (if required).

Next, build and install the module:

make install

Or install manually into your Lua module directory:

make
cp cjson.so $LUA_MODULE_DIRECTORY

2.2. CMake

CMake can generate build configuration for many different platforms (including Unix and Windows).

First, generate the makefile for your platform using CMake. If CMake is unable to find Lua, manually set the LUA_DIR environment variable to the base prefix of your Lua 5.1 installation.

While cmake is used in the example below, ccmake or cmake-gui may be used to present an interface for changing the default build options.

mkdir build
cd build
# Optional: export LUA_DIR=$LUA51_PREFIX
cmake ..

Next, build and install the module:

make install
# Or:
make
cp cjson.so $LUA_MODULE_DIRECTORY

Review the CMake documentation for further details.

2.3. RPM

Linux distributions using RPM can create a package via the included RPM spec file. Ensure the rpm-build package (or similar) has been installed.

Build and install the module via RPM:

rpmbuild -tb lua-cjson-2.1.0.tar.gz
rpm -Uvh $LUA_CJSON_RPM

2.4. LuaRocks

LuaRocks can be used to install and manage Lua modules on a wide range of platforms (including Windows).

First, extract the Lua CJSON source package.

Next, install the module:

cd lua-cjson-2.1.0
luarocks make
Note
 LuaRocks does not support platform specific configuration for Solaris. On Solaris, you may need to manually uncomment USE_INTERNAL_ISINF in the rockspec before building this module.

Review the LuaRocks documentation for further details.

2.5. Build Options (#define)

Lua CJSON offers several #define build options to address portability issues, and enable non-default features. Some build methods may automatically set platform specific options if required. Other features should be enabled manually.

USE_INTERNAL_ISINF

Workaround for Solaris platforms missing isinf.

DISABLE_INVALID_NUMBERS

Recommended on platforms where strtod / sprintf are not POSIX compliant (eg, Windows MinGW). Prevents cjson.encode_invalid_numbers and cjson.decode_invalid_numbers from being enabled. However, cjson.encode_invalid_numbers may still be set to "null". When using the Lua CJSON built-in floating point conversion this option is unnecessary and is ignored.

2.5.1. Built-in floating point conversion

Lua CJSON may be built with David Gay’s floating point conversion routines. This can increase overall performance by up to 50% on some platforms when converting a large amount of numeric data. However, this option reduces portability and is disabled by default.

USE_INTERNAL_FPCONV

Enable internal number conversion routines.

IEEE_BIG_ENDIAN

Must be set on big endian architectures.

MULTIPLE_THREADS

Must be set if Lua CJSON may be used in a multi-threaded application. Requires the pthreads library.

3. API (Functions)

3.1. Synopsis

-- Module instantiation
local cjson = require "cjson"
local cjson2 = cjson.new()
local cjson_safe = require "cjson.safe"

-- Translate Lua value to/from JSON
text = cjson.encode(value)
value = cjson.decode(text)

-- Get and/or set Lua CJSON configuration
setting = cjson.decode_invalid_numbers([setting])
setting = cjson.encode_invalid_numbers([setting])
keep = cjson.encode_keep_buffer([keep])
depth = cjson.encode_max_depth([depth])
depth = cjson.decode_max_depth([depth])
convert, ratio, safe = cjson.encode_sparse_array([convert[, ratio[, safe]]])

3.2. Module Instantiation

local cjson = require "cjson"
local cjson2 = cjson.new()
local cjson_safe = require "cjson.safe"

Import Lua CJSON via the Lua require function. Lua CJSON does not register a global module table.

The cjson module will throw an error during JSON conversion if any invalid data is encountered. Refer to cjson.encode and cjson.decode for details.

The cjson.safe module behaves identically to the cjson module, except when errors are encountered during JSON conversion. On error, the cjson_safe.encode and cjson_safe.decode functions will return nil followed by the error message.

cjson.new can be used to instantiate an independent copy of the Lua CJSON module. The new module has a separate persistent encoding buffer, and default settings.

Lua CJSON can support Lua implementations using multiple preemptive threads within a single Lua state provided the persistent encoding buffer is not shared. This can be achieved by one of the following methods:

Note
 Lua CJSON uses strtod and snprintf to perform numeric conversion as they are usually well supported, fast and bug free. However, these functions require a workaround for JSON encoding/parsing under locales using a comma decimal separator. Lua CJSON detects the current locale during instantiation to determine and automatically implement the workaround if required. Lua CJSON should be reinitialised via cjson.new if the locale of the current process changes. Using a different locale per thread is not supported.

3.3. decode

value = cjson.decode(json_text)

cjson.decode will deserialise any UTF-8 JSON string into a Lua value or table.

UTF-16 and UTF-32 JSON strings are not supported.

cjson.decode requires that any NULL (ASCII 0) and double quote (ASCII 34) characters are escaped within strings. All escape codes will be decoded and other bytes will be passed transparently. UTF-8 characters are not validated during decoding and should be checked elsewhere if required.

JSON null will be converted to a NULL lightuserdata value. This can be compared with cjson.null for convenience.

By default, numbers incompatible with the JSON specification (infinity, NaN, hexadecimal) can be decoded. This default can be changed with cjson.decode_invalid_numbers.

Example: Decoding
json_text = '[ true, { "foo": "bar" } ]'
value = cjson.decode(json_text)
-- Returns: { true, { foo = "bar" } }
Caution
 Care must be taken after decoding JSON objects with numeric keys. Each numeric key will be stored as a Lua string. Any subsequent code assuming type number may break.

3.4. decode_invalid_numbers

setting = cjson.decode_invalid_numbers([setting])
-- "setting" must be a boolean. Default: true.

Lua CJSON may generate an error when trying to decode numbers not supported by the JSON specification. Invalid numbers are defined as:

Available settings:

true

Accept and decode invalid numbers. This is the default setting.

false

Throw an error when invalid numbers are encountered.

The current setting is always returned, and is only updated when an argument is provided.

3.5. decode_max_depth

depth = cjson.decode_max_depth([depth])
-- "depth" must be a positive integer. Default: 1000.

Lua CJSON will generate an error when parsing deeply nested JSON once the maximum array/object depth has been exceeded. This check prevents unnecessarily complicated JSON from slowing down the application, or crashing the application due to lack of process stack space.

An error may be generated before the depth limit is hit if Lua is unable to allocate more objects on the Lua stack.

By default, Lua CJSON will reject JSON with arrays and/or objects nested more than 1000 levels deep.

The current setting is always returned, and is only updated when an argument is provided.

3.6. encode

json_text = cjson.encode(value)

cjson.encode will serialise a Lua value into a string containing the JSON representation.

cjson.encode supports the following types:

The remaining Lua types will generate an error:

By default, numbers are encoded with 14 significant digits. Refer to cjson.encode_number_precision for details.

Lua CJSON will escape the following characters within each UTF-8 string:

All other bytes are passed transparently.

Caution

Lua CJSON will successfully encode/decode binary strings, but this is technically not supported by JSON and may not be compatible with other JSON libraries. To ensure the output is valid JSON, applications should ensure all Lua strings passed to cjson.encode are UTF-8.

Base64 is commonly used to encode binary data as the most efficient encoding under UTF-8 can only reduce the encoded size by a further ~8%. Lua Base64 routines can be found in the LuaSocket and lbase64 packages.

Lua CJSON uses a heuristic to determine whether to encode a Lua table as a JSON array or an object. A Lua table with only positive integer keys of type number will be encoded as a JSON array. All other tables will be encoded as a JSON object.

Lua CJSON does not use metamethods when serialising tables.

Lua arrays with missing entries (sparse arrays) may optionally be encoded in several different ways. Refer to cjson.encode_sparse_array for details.

JSON object keys are always strings. Hence cjson.encode only supports table keys which are type number or string. All other types will generate an error.

Note
 Standards compliant JSON must be encapsulated in either an object ({}) or an array ([]). If strictly standards compliant JSON is desired, a table must be passed to cjson.encode.

By default, encoding the following Lua values will generate errors:

These defaults can be changed with:

Example: Encoding
value = { true, { foo = "bar" } }
json_text = cjson.encode(value)
-- Returns: '[true,{"foo":"bar"}]'

3.7. encode_invalid_numbers

setting = cjson.encode_invalid_numbers([setting])
-- "setting" must a boolean or "null". Default: false.

Lua CJSON may generate an error when encoding floating point numbers not supported by the JSON specification (invalid numbers):

Available settings:

true

Allow invalid numbers to be encoded. This will generate non-standard JSON, but this output is supported by some libraries.

"null"

Encode invalid numbers as a JSON null value. This allows infinity and NaN to be encoded into valid JSON.

false

Throw an error when attempting to encode invalid numbers. This is the default setting.

The current setting is always returned, and is only updated when an argument is provided.

3.8. encode_keep_buffer

keep = cjson.encode_keep_buffer([keep])
-- "keep" must be a boolean. Default: true.

Lua CJSON can reuse the JSON encoding buffer to improve performance.

Available settings:

true

The buffer will grow to the largest size required and is not freed until the Lua CJSON module is garbage collected. This is the default setting.

false

Free the encode buffer after each call to cjson.encode.

The current setting is always returned, and is only updated when an argument is provided.

3.9. encode_max_depth

depth = cjson.encode_max_depth([depth])
-- "depth" must be a positive integer. Default: 1000.

Once the maximum table depth has been exceeded Lua CJSON will generate an error. This prevents a deeply nested or recursive data structure from crashing the application.

By default, Lua CJSON will generate an error when trying to encode data structures with more than 1000 nested tables.

The current setting is always returned, and is only updated when an argument is provided.

Example: Recursive Lua table
a = {}; a[1] = a

3.10. encode_number_precision

precision = cjson.encode_number_precision([precision])
-- "precision" must be an integer between 1 and 14. Default: 14.

The amount of significant digits returned by Lua CJSON when encoding numbers can be changed to balance accuracy versus performance. For data structures containing many numbers, setting cjson.encode_number_precision to a smaller integer, for example 3, can improve encoding performance by up to 50%.

By default, Lua CJSON will output 14 significant digits when converting a number to text.

The current setting is always returned, and is only updated when an argument is provided.

3.11. encode_sparse_array

convert, ratio, safe = cjson.encode_sparse_array([convert[, ratio[, safe]]])
-- "convert" must be a boolean. Default: false.
-- "ratio" must be a positive integer. Default: 2.
-- "safe" must be a positive integer. Default: 10.

Lua CJSON classifies a Lua table into one of three kinds when encoding a JSON array. This is determined by the number of values missing from the Lua array as follows:

Normal

All values are available.

Sparse

At least 1 value is missing.

Excessively sparse

The number of values missing exceeds the configured ratio.

Lua CJSON encodes sparse Lua arrays as JSON arrays using JSON null for the missing entries.

An array is excessively sparse when all the following conditions are met:

Lua CJSON will never consider an array to be excessively sparse when ratio = 0. The safe limit ensures that small Lua arrays are always encoded as sparse arrays.

By default, attempting to encode an excessively sparse array will generate an error. If convert is set to true, excessively sparse arrays will be converted to a JSON object.

The current settings are always returned. A particular setting is only changed when the argument is provided (non-nil).

Example: Encoding a sparse array
cjson.encode({ [3] = "data" })
-- Returns: '[null,null,"data"]'
Example: Enabling conversion to a JSON object
cjson.encode_sparse_array(true)
cjson.encode({ [1000] = "excessively sparse" })
-- Returns: '{"1000":"excessively sparse"}'

4. API (Variables)

4.1. _NAME

The name of the Lua CJSON module ("cjson").

4.2. _VERSION

The version number of the Lua CJSON module ("2.1.0").

4.3. null

Lua CJSON decodes JSON null as a Lua lightuserdata NULL pointer. cjson.null is provided for comparison.

5. References